ISO 9001 Manual Updated to 2008 Standard
| by Steve Flick | ||||
We’ll be releasing our updated ISO 9001 QMS Policies, Procedures, and Forms manual this week. The ISO 9001 standard, “Quality Management Systems – Requirements”, was updated for the first time in eight years and released last November. The changes to our manual go quite a bit further than merely substituting every occurrence of “2000” with “2008”, of course.
We now offer you a leaner manual in more than one sense. There are fewer pages and fewer procedures in our soon-to-be-released product than in the previous version, reflecting our “lean” philosophy.
The Quality Manual reflects lean thinking most of all. Rather than borrow the text of the standard verbatim, we stripped the Quality Manual to the bare essentials. It’s not going to be for everyone – some will, no doubt, still insist that their Quality Manuals parrot the text of the ISO 9001 standard, so that they’re sure their Quality Management System documentation covers every aspect of ISO 9001. Putting in a lot of verbiage that’s not required by the standard, however, can make your Quality Manual less user-friendly, less useful, and less likely to be improved.
There are fewer procedures in the new and improved ISO 9001 QMS manual. Procedures retained are ones that many organizations consider important or critical (e.g., Internal Auditing, Corrective Action). Those procedures are modeled on the Deming Cycle — they have a Plan, Do, Check, and Act phase. Some procedures that aren’t typically high priority and/or that didn’t amount to much more than simple work instructions (e.g., Serial Number Designation) have been omitted.
Throughout the updated manual, we refer to ISO 9001 requirements. The six required procedures are highlighted in the Quality Manual; they’re also the first six of the twenty-three procedures we provide.
We’ve done something new with the “Forms and Records” section at the end of each procedure. We’re still providing sample forms for you to use, but now they’re categorized as “required” or “other” and we tell you which ISO 9001 clause requires the record. For example, in the Internal Audits procedure, there’s a form for audit reports; the Forms/Records table tells you the report requirement is in clause 8.2.2.
We think this is a much improved product, one that will smooth the bumps in your organization’s road to ISO 9001 compliance and certification.
As always, we eagerly await your comments.
Categories:
ISO Quality Standards • Procedures Manuals
Tags:
9001:2008 • ISO 9001 • Policies and Procedures • process improvement • processes • product update • QMS • quality • quality management • quality management system • quality manual • update
Bizmanualz has been at the forefront of deploying business best practices since 1995 delivering Policies, Procedures and Forms; quality systems implementation; and strategic business process improvement to help business owners achieve the growth and expansion they envision.
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Originally published in 2009 by Bizmanualz, Inc. under the title ISO 9001 Manual Updated to 2008 Standard. All rights reserved. Reproduction permitted with attribution only. www.bizmanualz.com
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